Ever noticed the similarity between Han Solo and Thomas Magnum…or Harrison Ford and Tom Selleck for that matter? Neither did I, till now. As an interesting co-inky-dink sidenote, Tom Selleck was originally cast for the role of Indiana Jones, but his commitment to Magnum P.I. kept him from taking this role, which as we all know, went to Harrison Ford. Or Solo, P.I. Or Indiana Solo. Or whatever.

Is anyone else getting an intermittent message on Yout Tube that says “We’re sorry, this video is no longer available”? It’s been frustrating me a lot.😦 Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If you know how to get rid of this, please let me know.

Anwyay, I found this online. Saw it a couple of years ago but stumbled across it again — still makes me laugh!

…John Elliott of Leeds Metropolitan University believes he has come up with software which at least will decipher the structure of their language – and be the first step in understanding what they are saying.

Dr Elliott’s programme would compare an alien language to a database of 60 different languages in the world to search see if it has a similar structure.

It would work great at deciphering our own human languages to start with! Imagine having a universal translator pinned to your lapel!

Because languages have different word orders, Dr Elliott is amassing a library of the syntaxes of 60 human tongues.

If a message is received from outer space, it could be compared against this database. Scientists would then be able to see if it resembled anything human, or a mix of Earthly languages.

The tiny kink in the plan, of course, is that we receive a written alien language before a spoken one…

Mind you, Dr Elliott might just have the perfect people to contact to test his program. According to sci-fi site io9.com, there are people who specialize in building non-human languages:

they’re called conlangers, and they construct elaborate languages for fun or to make the portrait of an alien race more believable.

[…]

Conlangers include everyone from Marc Okrand, the linguist who wrote Klingon, to the nerds who invented the most perfectly logical language in the world, known as Lojban. Anthony Burgess invented a little conlang for his characters in Clockwork Orange, and Suzette Haden Elgin’s Native Tongue trilogy is all about a group of rebel women linguists who create their own language to subvert their ultra-sexist society. Sometimes Hollywood employs conlangers to make alien talk seem more realistic[…]

Time for a game review, but I’ll do it a bit differently: I will give you my rating first, then a reason behind it🙂 (oh, this was played on xbox360 btw)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed gets

5/10

Graphics: 9/10 – brilliant enviroments and cuts scenes

Using the force: 4/10 – fecking annoying to aim properly

Story: 8/10 – does keep you interested – I actually want to watch them and not skip😉

Game play: 5/10

Regarding the difficulty level, some creatures are easy enough to kill, whereas others are suddenly REALLY hard. The thing is, this is not as the game progresses, this is all at the same time.

I also found it a bit difficult to figure out what I was meant to do or where to go. The detailed enviroments are nice, but if you walk too far or jump to a ledge that looks like you can jump on it, you suddenly die cause “you’re not meant to be there“.

But the real thorn for me was the saving… you can’t SAVE!!!! You do have checkpoints, which is where you will respawn when you die, but sometimes these are spaced out. After defeating two thirds of a tough army, if one lucky stormtrooper pushes you, you’re dead, and you have to start ALL over again. I like my saves… I want my save.

If you are a fan you will enjoy it – if not, you’ll still enjoy it, but you’ll soon be reminded of those frustrating arcade games where you feel the only way to complete the game is by pressing the button really fast.

We’ve featured some really strange musical instruments here before, but this one is not only strange, but really cool in a geeky way. Behold the Imperial March from “The Empire Strikes Back”, played on a standard floppy drive. With floppy drives becoming more and more obsolete (I can’t recall when last I saw a PC being sold with one anymore!), this might be a chance to create a new floppy drive orchestra!